He and Skylights are speaking, but I can’t make out any words. It’s like the TV is on in the background, the low hum of a sitcom, or perhaps some British show from PBS. Something about a modern major general and pirates and men wearing eyeliner who seduce every damsel they meet. I laugh. It doesn’t hurt to laugh. Not right now. My mother would laugh, too, sometimes. She’d come out of her daydream with a giggle, not a scream. I’m trapped with her now. Both of us staring at a wall and seeing nothing.Nothing.
“Nothing.” I try to explain it to Hook, to the man with the beautiful blue eyes and the heart of a murderer. “Nothing,” I whisper.
He strokes my hair, his gaze never leaving mine. Like he’s invested. Like he actually cares if I live or die. Delirious, indeed.
When I close my eyes, I see Coy. The look on his face. The surprise in his eyes, the confusion, the fear. He wasafraid. I watched him die and did nothing.Nothing.
I’m the monster who’s come to the island to feast on its heart. It’s not Hook. It’s me. I’m the rot. I’m the one soaked in Coy’s blood, his life draining away and leaching into my skin.
“I’m sorry.” I reach for him, for Coy who falls toward me, hand outstretched. “I’m so sorry. Forgive me. Please forgive me. Please, please, Coy. I’m sorry.”
But he never does. Because he’s dead on the ground, and I’m in the arms of his killer.
ChapterFive
“—no saving her, James. She’s too far gone.” A gruff voice, one I don’t recognize, pulls me from the darkness.
Where the hell am I? I can’t get my bearings. I was just on the Jolly Roger, wasn’t I? But I don’t think I’m there anymore. Maybe I’ve been rescued.
“Peter!” I call for him, but he doesn’t answer. “Peter where are you? Help me!”
“Don’t summon that cunt.” The gruff voice rumbles nearby. “Lord knows we have enough trouble as it is.”
“Huran, you’d better save her, or I’ll hang you from my goddamn mainsail.” Hook is right beside me, his demeanor tinged with murder.
“Don’t you threaten him. I’m warning you, James. This’ll turn ugly fast.” The gruff voice is somehow even angrier. “He’s doing all he can.”
“He needs to do more, a whole fucking lot more.”
Tension snaps in the air, and I could swear I hear a sword being drawn, scraping along the edge of its scabbard. But then again, I’ve always had a vivid imagination. I’d laugh at the insanity of all this if I weren’t burning in fiery agony. Nope, I haven’t been rescued. Just delivered to some other version of hell by way of Neverland.
“You goddamn bastard, I already told you—”
A smoother voice, kindness laced into its tone, cuts through both of the angry ones. “Put the sword away, my love. It’s all right. Let me work.”
“James you’re an ungrateful prick, as always,” the gruff man grumbles then falls silent.
I try to open my eyes, but when I do, all I see is the white cinderblock wall of my mother’s hospital room. It’s as if I’m sitting right beside her, both of us staring, dead-eyed, at absolutely nothing. I wonder if someone might come visit us? No, probably not. I was the only one who visited her in the end. My father had already found several other women to occupy his time. It’s just the two of us, trapped, rotting from the base of our skulls.
“Let me out!” I try to shake off the shackles created by my mind. I thrash and scream, my body on fire as I try to free myself.
“Hold her!” the kind man yells.
Big hands come down on my shoulders, pinning me, locking me into the nightmare.
“Let go!” I can’t breathe, my body hot and cold.
“Hang on, lass.” My pirate holds me in place. No, not ‘my pirate.’Hook. Hook is the one who’s got me in his clutches, his teeth ripping and tearing my flesh away.
I scream until I’m hoarse, until my throat is nothing but tatters. But Hook doesn’t let me go. He’ll never let me go, will he? I’m doomed.
My tears roll along my temples and pool in my ears. All I can see is that white cinderblock wall, dimpled and grooved like the surface of the moon. Just as foreign. Just as cold.
“All right.” A voice from somewhere, or maybe I’m imagining it. “She should start to feel some relief.”
“When?” Hook bites the word from between his teeth.
“Any minute now. I cut off the worst of it and bathed it in what I had left of Liuna’s salve.”
